control arm bolts - be sure they're secure!

So, driving my daughter home from work from Seattle to Graham WA, I was fighting a hard, insistent pull to the right that had been plaguing my truck for some time. Not gonna say how long, because it's kinda embarrassing. At one point I was doing 65mph & being passed by a semi on each side of me in the adjacent lanes. On the seat between the two of us sat a box of D76 brake pads I'd intended to install earlier, before being pressed unexpectedly into taxi service. I got home & installed them in the driveway before retiring for the night. As I was working my spotlight around under the truck to check for tools & hardware & summary inspection of the undercarriage before knocking off for the night, I discovered to my shock & horror that the rear bolt for the driver side lower control arm was hanging loose in its hole, sans the nut. The control arm was dislocated & jutting out at a 10 to maybe 12 degree angle to where it should've been. Had that front control arm bolt let go at the wrong moment, I would've spun out between those two semi trucks & they'd have buttered me & my kid all over the freeway. The original plan was to take her back in to work the next morning. Two lives saved by divine providence & the need for fresh brake pads. As a side note, my truck handles exponentially better without one of my lower control arms flopping about like a rooster's tail in a stiff wind.
Yikes...